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City of Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh is strategically located within 500 miles of the majority of the US population and buying income. It has an uncanny natural beauty which is complemented by unique architecture. For the past ten years Pittsburgh consistently ranked in Rand McNally's Top Ten Livable Cities. The cost of living is among the lowest in the nation.

The City of Pittsburgh, like many municipalities across the United States, is dealing with the challenges of an evolving information architecture, and determining ways to integrate its existing applications into this architecture, including its internet environment. Web-enabling selected legacy applications proved to be an attractive approach for the City.

Getting real with Real Estate

The CIO at the City of Pittsburgh chose the real estate tax application, a key legacy application that is critical to the City's revenues, as the first application to web enable. Integrating this application into the open architecture and providing web access needed to happen without interrupting city operations, without forcing an expensive replacement project, and without decreasing the functionality of this critical application.

Using GwebPro as the web-enabling technology, the Bull eServices team updated the real estate application logon view, along with a contemporary menu view of available functions within the real estate application. An "old" application was given a new, fresh face without changing the legacy application.

...and the Savings are Real

The ability to extend the life of existing applications saves time and money. And, when critical processes continue without impact, while providing users with an easier to use and more contemporary view, the savings can be measured not only in dollars, but also in user satisfaction.

The City is considering additional applications for web-enabling, and taking the next step toward fulfilling the vision of their open information architecture.

"I was faced with a critical legacy application - real estate tax. The challenge for us is to meet the demands of our citizenry while managing cost, and continuing to provide a high level of dependable service.

The Bull proposal gave us a way to address increasing eGovernment requirements, to manage costs, and to improve user satisfaction. We were impressed with Bull's Services - their professional approach and friendly manner were a plus. The results over such a short time frame were amazing. And, we didn't have to change the legacy application to do it. We're now looking toward integrating other systems, so we can continue to align our business systems with our vision and strategy."

Dave Stephens, CIO,
City of Pittsburgh